Sexting in schools and confiscated cell phones

[DAbel03]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania
There were two girls in 9th grade in my sons school district that decided to take nude photos of themselves and share with other students via text messaging (picture text)Apparently this all came to a head last week 3/26/09. After administrators found out a few people had these pictures they decided to bring in law enforcment. Here is where my son comes in. Apparently as we all know when somthing big like this goes on in a school it spreads like wild fire. When he got called to the office there were 2 police officers and the principal. My son stated " I know what I'm here for , the pictures, Right?" They said how did you know about them and he said eveyone in school knows about it. Then they ask him if he had his cell phone on him which he did and then took out of his pocket. They told him to turn it off and the officer said let me see it and asked him how to take the battery out. He took the back off and she took the battery out and set it on the cabinet behind her and then told him that they were keeping the phone as evidence and she would let him know if he was ever going to get it back. According to all local news reports all phones that were confiscated will be destroyed. My question is that he says he never had the pictures in question on his phone so therefore he could have never forwarded them to anyone. If he did nothing wrong what gives them the right to destroy his phone? Oh and He is a senior (18 years of age) and when I talked to the officer she just kept telling me they could charge him with a felony ( possesion of child pornography) Now if the pictures were never there do we not have any rights to get his phone back or an appology when they find out they were wrong?

[Ohiogal]

Are you POSITIVE the pictures were never there? Did your son receive a sext?

[DAbel03]

Absolutley positive he would not lie to us or to them, He knows the consequences if they were there. And if they were he would have told us and we would just be angry that we lost a 175$ for the stupidity of others!

[williesbest2]

Is your son friends with these two girls by chance?

If I were you, I would contact my mobile phone carrier and ask to see a list of the phone numbers that were texted during the month that this occurred. If possible, also ask for the text/pictures that were transmitted during the month. I know some carriers will do this for you, others may not.

If you can't get the exact messages from the carrier, then I would suggest asking the school district what their proof is in taking the phone and assuming he possessed the pictures.

[DAbel03]

He is not friends with them. they decided to take these nude pics of theirselves and send them to their boyfriends ( so I hear) well you know what happens when a relationship goes bad and now all the sudden 70% of the school has received these pics and I have repeatedly ask my son if he got them and he said no but he had seen them on someone elses phone Geesh its high school of course this is going to get outa hand but to destroy a phone that never received them or sent them is beyond me when there is no way they will ever get all the phones that they were sent to. They also said in the paper that even if you received the text and deleted them without forwarding them, your phone would be destroyed. I guess I just want opinions on if it is worth fighting for considering his phone NEVER contained the pics in Question!

[Ohiogal]

Get phone records that can hopefully show that he never received the pics.